| Believe | |
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| Directed by | Loki Mulholland |
| Written by | Loki Mulholland |
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| Distributed by | Kaleidoscope Pictures |
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Believe is a 2007 mockumentary/comedy about the world of multi-level marketing (MLM). This is the first movie by director Loki Mulholland, who is also credited for the screenplay.
Believe was produced by Russ Kendall and Micah Merrill of Kaleidoscope Pictures.
Set in the town of Springfield, Believe tells the story of Adam Pendon (Larry Bagby), a struggling truck driver who was recently laid off from his job at the steel mill when it closed. Adam is approached by a salesman for a multi-level marketing company, Believe Industries. The salesman, Mark Fuller (Lincoln Hoppe), offers Adam a business opportunity.
Adam agrees to meet Mark at a local hotel for the business meeting. This meeting is filled with distributors for Believe Industries, such as Dan Bretenheirmer (Steve Anderson) and Sally Bretenheirmer (Ann Bosler) who are unable to succeed at Believe, even though they sincerely try to work the program. Tom (Brian Neal Clark) and Amy Hawks (Britani Bateman) are a focused couple who also meet Adam.
The owner of Believe is Howard Flash (Jeff Olson), who claims to have lived in a trailer park until the business of Believe saved his life and made him wealthy.
Adam decides to join Believe and succeeds unexpectedly. He is invited to be a speaker at a Believe convention. The crux of the plot is Adam at a crossroads of either enjoying wealth and fame from Believe or walking away because he believes he is misleading other people with his wealth and fame. [1]
For four years, Mulholland was a distributor for Amway, [2] one of the most well-known MLM companies in the world. [3] [4] [5]
Amway Corp. is an American multi-level marketing (MLM) company that sells health, beauty, and home care products. The company was founded in 1959 by Jay Van Andel and Richard DeVos and is based in Ada, Michigan. Amway and its sister companies under Alticor reported sales of $8.9 billion in 2019. It is the largest multi-level marketing company in the world by revenue. It conducts business through a number of affiliated companies in more than a hundred countries and territories.
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Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement in which affiliates receive a commission for each visit, signup or sale they generate for a merchant. This arrangement allows businesses to outsource part of the sales process. It is a form of performance-based marketing where the commission acts as an incentive for the affiliate; this commission is usually a percentage of the price of the product being sold, but can also be a flat rate per referral.
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The European Grouping of Marketing Professionals, widely named GEPM then renamed CEDIPAC SA, was a multi-level marketing company founded in the U.S. in 1988 by Jean Godzich, a former member of Amway. In France, its headquarters were in Fleury-sur-Andelle, Eure and it employed approximately 360 employees and 50,000 distributors in France. In 1995, its activities ended and it changed its name after many complaints by former members who presented it as a cult, as well as two parliamentary reports.
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